Andrew Goldie, from the Pregnancy Panorama Series (2011)
Universally, our lives are molded by the stories we tell and retell, helping to shape our self-conception. For many, these stories are imbued in objects or some other form of detectable trace, such as a photograph, an everyday item, or a daily ritual.
Currently showing on the first floor space at the Chinese Museum is the aptly named contemporary exhibition, Artefacts, curated by Arthur Chan. On display are works on paper by six artists from Melbourne and Sydney, exploring themes of belonging, identity and the process of self-conception through an examination of objects, gestures, and the photographic process.
Symbolic visual language draws the artworks together. Motifs such as a pregnant belly, an open palm, and a pulled tooth held by a red leather glove explore how common experiences of birth, ageing, and pain shape our selves.
Andrew Goldie shares the narrative of his son’s birth through photographic renderings of an eye, a newborn boy, and a pregnant torso with galaxies scattered throughout the digital print. The works meditate on Goldie’s experience of the beginning of a relationship with someone he is close to genetically, but who he has not yet met. From the process of bonding with a newborn, comes the process of acquainting oneself with our own aging body.
William Yang’s ‘Three Epiphanies’ uses the medium of the photograph to literally and symbolically capture his palm – it’s appearance, and what it is holding – in a moment of time. The central photo depicts Yang’s palm offering a mixture of western and eastern medicine and vitamins: Viagra, Chinese digestive pills, blood pressure tablets, prostate medication, and fish oil capsules. To the right the same palm becomes a platform for identity and sense of being, with the words ‘i am’ written in permanent texta on the palm. Yang’s palm becomes a self-gauging device in which he can test his identity at this life’s moment.
Similarly, in ‘The Molar’, Godelieve Mols uses her search for self as her motivation for a photographic series of ruminations on three subjects: the tooth, the pomegranate, and a flower head with a bright red seed. These daily subjects carry meaning for Mols that the viewer can only surmise, and take as a cue to think about the weight their personal objects carry. An undercurrent throughout the exhibition, Chinese symbolism distinctly runs through Mols’ work through heavy use of red, a traditionally lucky colour in China.
This symbolism brushes through Nicholas Chin’s Chinese ink on thin Japanese rice paper works. Chinese alphabet symbols sit alongside cartoon-like illustrations, that could be a self-portrait. Seal stamps on each piece play with the traditional practice of seal-stamping calligraphic landscapes and renderings. Alongside this, Yang’s ‘Family Album’ (2009) features photographs from Yang’s family archive printed onto dark duck eggshell, which symbolizes fertility, amongst other things, and is often used to celebrate the birth of new family members.
This exhibition complements the large repository of personal objects of Chinese-Australian citizens the Chinese Museum houses. In fact, there is an exhibit of some of this collection two floors up from Artefacts. People entering the Chinese Museum could see the exhibition as a small part in Asia-Pacific-wide discussions of topics such as the politics of place, the experience of migration, and how humans connect. Australian examples would include Sydney’s MOCA’s ‘Mirrored Years’, a survey show of renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, and Brisbane’s GOMA’s two major projects: ‘The China Project’ and Asia Pacific Triennial (APT).
Quiet and intimate, this exhibition invites deep self-reflection to anyone who visits. A comfy red couch is suitably placed against a wall, encouraging lengthy ponderings. Although this exhibition nods to the heritage of Chinese immigrants and their descendants, it also opens up reflection of a collective history we are shaping.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
Artefacts
Artists: William Yang, Andrew Goldie, Godelieve Mols, Anthony Sawrey and Nicholas Chin.
Curator: Arthur Chan.
Chinese Museum, 22 Cohen Place, Melbourne
www.chinesemuseum.com.au
23 April – 27 June
